What Is Out of Home Advertising?

With more and more of our lives occurring digitally, it may seem that in-home, web-based, digital advertising is the only way to promote your brand and increase brand familiarity.

What Is Out of Home Advertising?

With more and more of our lives occurring digitally, it may seem that in-home, web-based, digital advertising is the only way to promote your brand and increase brand familiarity.

We spend a vast portion of our social and professional; lives no longer face to face, but in virtual situations where we meet and discuss ideas and concepts via social media and/or web-based meeting applications.

It seems only logical that the best place to market to consumers is in this online, digital community. In this setting, it seems out of home advertising would no longer be relevant, however, this is definitely not the case.

The Flaw with In-Home Advertising

While there is definitely a place for in-home advertising, it does face one major handicap; consumer callousness and disinterest from an online and digital community literally flooded with advertisements.

From the moment we as consumers wake, we are bombarded with marketing campaigns on our devices, televisions, radios, and the like.

Most of us have unknowingly become experts at disengaging ourselves from these advertisements by simply not clicking on a suggested link, turning the channel, or turning down the radio.

We also come to consider much of what we see advertised using these methods as a nuisance, and we begin to associate an unpleasant feeling with those brands.

If a brand has invested a large portion of their marketing budget into in-home advertising, they may not see the profit margins increase to the degree they would if they considered using some of their budgets to run out of home (OOH) advertising campaigns.

What Is Out of Home Advertising?

Out of home advertising is simply advertising consumers are exposed to outside of their homes.

This means any marketing material or advertisement a consumer sees when they are in transit from one place to another, or spending time doing an activity outdoors.

The most popular form of out of home advertising is probably the billboard. Large posters that adorn major roadways, freeways, and highways, billboards have been a consistently successful method to advertise outdoors for decades.

However, in the past, they were thought to be the luxury of larger companies.

Now more than ever, the out of home advertising climate has changed and companies of all sizes may now afford this type of marketing campaign.

Additionally, using reliable media brokerage companies like AdQuick can help sellers determine an appropriate budget for their outdoor advertising, and make the most of that budget by acting as the go-between for them and individual out of home media owners.

They can also help determine which markets will be most profitable for a seller, how long the advertisement should run, and project the advertisement’s reach.

What Is Available for Out of Home Advertising?

There are many available structures available for out of home advertising. More than just the standard billboard, just about every outdoor structure is available for advertisement provided the owner of the structure wants to earn a profit by allowing it to be used.

This is again another reason why a brokerage company like AdQuick can be so beneficial.

Instead of having to navigate through hundreds of out of home media owners, their individual websites, and contacts, a brokerage brings everything together in one place.

It’s obvious how this equates to savings in time and money.

Again, we are discussing more than just billboards. Here are six examples of out of home advertisement structures.

  • Billboards—Billboard advertising can be placed along roadsides, where they are most traditionally found. They can also be placed on the sides of buildings and found as standalone structures in larger, more urban areas. You can also have static billboards, digital billboards, and even interactive billboards.
  • Street Furniture—Street furniture includes everything from bus shelters, train and metro stations, telephone booths, city information kiosks, street poles, and lamps, to taxi cab displays.
  • Transit—Transit advertisements include vehicular wraps and stickers and can also mean advertisements that are located inside busses, trains, monorails, taxis, and any other form of public transportation. This can also include mobile billboards.
  • Point of Sale Displays—Any marketing effort a consumer is exposed to at the till in a retail store is considered a point of sale display. This can include posters, floor tile stickers, screens, banners, signs, etc.
  • Wallscapes—Like a billboard in their appearance, a wallscape is signage that is either painted on or attached to the side of a prominent building in an urban area. Not only are these great ways to promote a brand, but they also are not limited to the size and shape of a billboard, and are often considered an enhancement to a consumer’s outdoor experience.
  • Wildpostings—More of an up and coming method of out of home advertising, wildpostings are essentially smaller sized posters placed in large numbers throughout urban areas, usually at eye level. These types of advertisements have seen great success in promoting artists and others in the entertainment industry.

Why Out of Home Advertising?

As previously mentioned, there is a known flaw with in-home, digital advertising; consumer callousness to the ad, product, and ultimately, the brand. While we do spend a considerable amount of time online, we spend nearly 70% of our lives out of our homes, whether it is for business, pleasure, commuting, or traveling.

The likelihood that we will notice an out of home advertisement and divert our entire attention to it is much higher than the likelihood we will give attention to a mobile ad on a social media website that you see on your smartphone.

Plus, now there are ad blockers that you can install on your mobile devices that get rid of ads. As such, more and more companies and practitioners are making the switch.

Here are four reasons to consider using out of home advertising for your next ad campaign.

  • Out of Home Advertising Sees a Better Return on Investment—When considering the use of out of home advertising, a company may think the cost of outdoor media too high compared to the number of sales generated from the ads. However, companies like AdQuick are able to track the campaign’s reach in real-time and use analytics to determine the effectiveness of the ads and how they generate website traffic and deeper brand familiarity and awareness. The ability to measure this information can help a company determine the portions of their sales that are being generated from an ad, and prove the value of the out of home advertisement.
  • Out of Home Advertising Works for Small Businesses and Large Businesses Alike—Once thought of as an advertising tool of only large businesses, out of home advertisements are now affordable and available to small businesses, entrepreneurs and sole practitioners as well. Because out of home advertising is available on a local level and not just nationwide, it is completely conceivable that “hometown” businesses can reap the benefits of this form of advertising. For instance, a locally owned restaurant may have a better reach on a transit ad in a community with a demographic of retirees than it would on a clickable link on the newest social media website.
  • Out of Home Advertising is More Engaging than Online Advertising—We’ve already looked at how we, as consumers, are experts at disengaging with online and digital content we are overly exposed to. The benefit of out of home advertising is that it practically commands a consumer’s attention without feeling aggressive or intrusive. If a driver is stopped at a traffic light, there is a high probability she will read the message on a billboard in her line of vision. She may even make a decision to purchase products or use services while still in her vehicle. This is very different from someone who sees an online ad from an influencer.
  • Out of Home Advertising Creates Positive Brand Image—Advertisements we are exposed to out of our homes are generally more acceptable to us than advertisements we experience in-home. Perhaps in-home advertisements seem intrusive, and unwanted. Perhaps we sometimes feel like hostages when our favorite television episodes pause for a commercial break. Regardless of the reasons, out of home advertising has generally experienced greater positive reception among consumers than has in-home advertising. Out of home advertising makes up a large portion of our total outdoor experience; it is an expected and accepted part of our outdoor lives. Many consumers even feel that out of home advertising contributes to urban beautification. As such, the brands advertising in these manners are received more favorably than a brand that markets solely in the digital realm.

Out of home advertising is a great way for any business or practitioner to market to their target audience in a favorable, noticeable, yet non-intrusive way.

The use of dynamic content placed on large billboards, digital displays, eye-level structures, vehicles, and point of sale advertisements market to consumers in a way that is generally accepted and noticed.

Once considered too expensive or too large for anyone other than large corporations, out of home advertising is now priced and available for just about any seller of any product in any industry.

Using an out of home marketing brokerage firm can assist a seller in determining the proper placement, frequency, and scope of their marketing campaigns and save hours of back and forth negotiations with individual media owners.

Even in a digitally charged world, the use of out of home advertisements is increasingly more effective than some in-home advertisements.